Project for 76 homes proposed near Exit 8

Project for 76 homes proposed near Exit 8

Ten years ago, large single-family housing developments routinely came before the Clifton Park Planning Board.

Now, because of the build-out of much of the town’s eastern side and zoning on the western side designed to keep it rural, new housing development proposals have slowed.

But a property owner recently pitched the largest single-family housing project proposed in four years — 76 housing lots on a 41-acre property near the Adirondack Northway’s Exit 8.

The proposed development at 1567 Crescent Road called Crescent Woods would be marketed to empty-nesters and singles, even though it’s near Shenendehowa’s Okte Elementary School, according to the application presented to the Planning Department.

“To date, cluster (as well as senior) housing has been proposed at both Exits 9 and 10, but there is no such proposal to address the housing needs of our changing (and aging) population in the southern part of the community,” the application states. “Crescent Woods is intended to appeal to (and be marketed to) the Clifton Park ‘empty nester’ population as well as the single professional population, looking for an Exit 8 location.”

It is less than a mile from the exit.

Michael W. Scott is the trustee for the Fisher Revocable Trust, which owns the land. Scott said Thursday the land was his family’s and his grandmother died a year ago.

Ella Fisher died at age 91 and had lived in the property’s split-level home, which was built in 1959, according to her obituary and county property records.

Scott has applied for a cluster housing development, meaning that the houses would be built on smaller lots than normally allowed by the zoning, and in exchange, some areas would be left as open space, something that the family wanted, he said.

There are nearly 4 acres of state-protected wetlands on the property. Public water and sewer are already adjacent to the property.

After several years of not seeing any big new subdivisions in Clifton Park, this one made officials take notice.

“We’re not seeing the growth that we saw the decade prior,” said John Scavo, town planner. “We’re adding units, but not at that rate.

“We are seeing projects that were approved back in ‘07 [being built]; we’re just not seeing new projects for big tracts of land. It’s very limited.”

The only big undeveloped tracts of land on the eastern side of town are ones that the owners aren’t ready to sell, which was the case with the Fisher property until now, Scavo said.

In western Clifton Park, the zoning allows one home per 3 acres of land, which was enacted to keep that area rural and to keep it from getting as developed as the eastern part of town.